How Long 'til Black Future Month?
When you pick up a short story collection, you expect a mixed bag. Whether there are multiple authors or just one, the collection itself usually contains a few stories you love, a few you like, and a few that don't work for you. Disappointment is part of the expectation.
But NK Jemisin is working on a different level, because every single story in this collection was excellent. They're all vastly different. Some take place in the past, some in the future. Some are set in this world, some in other worlds. Some lean towards fantasy, some towards science-fiction. But they're all incredible, and they build on each other thematically.
The collection starts with "The Ones Who Stay and Fight", Jemisin's explicit reaction to LeGuin's famous parable "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas". Knowing this, I re-read LeGuin's story immediately before starting this collection. I'm glad I did, because really the whole collection seems to be a reaction to it (as was Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy).
Omelas asks the reader to consider what they're willing to put up with for their own comfort. How bad does it have to be for you to opt out of a system? If a system harms one single person, is that enough to condemn the whole system, to walk away and seek something better?
Jemisin asks, is it enough to opt out? If you know that people are being harmed, aren't you morally obligated to stop the harm and alleviate the pain, if you can?
This collection is obsessed with revolution, with sacrifice, with dreams. Dreams are how we know that the world can be different than it is, they're how we maintain hope and focus our efforts towards a goal. Sacrifice is almost always necessary. You can't change the world and expect your life to be the same. So what are you willing to sacrifice, on behalf of others? And then, how do you go about fighting for change? How to you guide the world in a better direction, one that causes less harm?
Each story deals with one aspect of this. What does it look like to stay and fight? But in asking that question, they already demand that you do. Walking away is no better than remaining complacent, because the system still stands, and the harm continues.
LeGuin's parable was a philosophical exercise, echoing similar questions posed earlier philosophers. It was always posed by people with the ability to walk away from distasteful situations. As voices like Jemisin's are raised, we have to start to consider the victims. The ones who can neither stay nor walk away from Omelas - the children in the basement. It stops being an exercise and becomes a call to action, a matter of life and death.
But NK Jemisin is working on a different level, because every single story in this collection was excellent. They're all vastly different. Some take place in the past, some in the future. Some are set in this world, some in other worlds. Some lean towards fantasy, some towards science-fiction. But they're all incredible, and they build on each other thematically.
The collection starts with "The Ones Who Stay and Fight", Jemisin's explicit reaction to LeGuin's famous parable "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas". Knowing this, I re-read LeGuin's story immediately before starting this collection. I'm glad I did, because really the whole collection seems to be a reaction to it (as was Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy).
Omelas asks the reader to consider what they're willing to put up with for their own comfort. How bad does it have to be for you to opt out of a system? If a system harms one single person, is that enough to condemn the whole system, to walk away and seek something better?
Jemisin asks, is it enough to opt out? If you know that people are being harmed, aren't you morally obligated to stop the harm and alleviate the pain, if you can?
This collection is obsessed with revolution, with sacrifice, with dreams. Dreams are how we know that the world can be different than it is, they're how we maintain hope and focus our efforts towards a goal. Sacrifice is almost always necessary. You can't change the world and expect your life to be the same. So what are you willing to sacrifice, on behalf of others? And then, how do you go about fighting for change? How to you guide the world in a better direction, one that causes less harm?
Each story deals with one aspect of this. What does it look like to stay and fight? But in asking that question, they already demand that you do. Walking away is no better than remaining complacent, because the system still stands, and the harm continues.
LeGuin's parable was a philosophical exercise, echoing similar questions posed earlier philosophers. It was always posed by people with the ability to walk away from distasteful situations. As voices like Jemisin's are raised, we have to start to consider the victims. The ones who can neither stay nor walk away from Omelas - the children in the basement. It stops being an exercise and becomes a call to action, a matter of life and death.
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